This was our 2nd day in this beautiful port, although today we had to share it with about 12,000 other cruise guests. The morning started with rain showers gathering at the horizon near sunrise and we were all fervently hoping that they would come over the ship. We have problems getting the salt and sand… read more of “30 March 2011;…”

It was still blowing 25 to 30 knots and I decided to take a tugboat as the weather information received from the shore side was: let’s say inconclusive. Traffic Control advised that it was wind still in the port and port control talked that it blew “about 15 knots”. Thus we are better safe than… read more of “29 March 2011;…”

This was our second windy day at sea. Wind caused by this high pressure ridge near the Azores and of course also by the ships speed going against it. 30 knots of wind speed and another 15 of ships speed, gave a “stormy feeling” on the outside deck of 45 knots. Thus we had the… read more of “28 March 2011; At…”

Thus after our experiences in Dakar we have two restful days at sea, time to plan for our next port of calls, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Here we will stay two days and then we will visit Arrecife on Lanzarote. As was forecast the wind did not diminish but grew even stronger during the day… read more of “27 March 2011; At…”

Dakar is a major deep water port located on one of the most western points of Africa. It has always been an entry point for all sorts of commerce going to and coming from Africa and has about 30 docks available that can take most of the world size ships. It is fairly sheltered from… read more of “26 March 2011;…”

As planned we arrived at the fairway buoy at 04.30 in the morning and slowed down to 10 knots. That brought our squat down to about a foot (At full sea speed it can be over 10 feet in the stern) and then we followed the buoys over the shallow estuary. It is 20 miles… read more of “25 March 2011;…”

The total distance between Mindalo and the Banjul Sea buoy is 540 Nautical miles, while the shortest distance between the most Eastern Cape Verde Island and the nearest African shore is just over 300 miles. We had to travel this longer distance, firstly to get out of the Cape Verdes as Mindalo is located on… read more of “24 March 2011; At…”

After four days of seeing only blue water we had land again today. The Cape Verdes are basically two groups of islands lying about 300 miles off the African coast. So after our call here, there will be another day at sea before we will reach the African Continent. There are several ports that can… read more of “23 March 2011;…”